Albany, first in parking lots

By Dominick Calsolaro

Published 12:00 am, Saturday, January 29, 2011

Albany's Department of Development and Planning has been conducting community meetings for 18 months to help with its formulation of a comprehensive plan for the city. This process is commonly referred to as "Albany 2030."

For some unknown reason, the ideas expressed by the citizens of Albany at these meetings, such as making the city more pedestrian friendly, creating a better and more useful mass transportation system that includes light rail and opening up the Hudson River waterfront by making Interstate 787 a street-level boulevard are falling on deaf ears.

A very disturbing trend has been taking hold of Albany's Planning Board and Board of Zoning Appeals, and, by extension, the Department of Development and Planning. It is the approval of surface parking lots and more surface parking lots, almost all of which involve the demolition of commercial buildings and housing.

Many people are aware of the Fort Orange Club's highly publicized demolition of two perfectly good buildings on Washington Avenue to add just a handful of parking spaces to an already existing parking lot. This is only the tip of the iceberg.

In the Nov. 4 story, "College expansion concerns neighbors," the Times Union reported that The College of Saint Rose plans to demolish up to 13 residential buildings and replace them with a dormitory and a 171-space parking lot.

The demolition of so many residences in Pine Hills, in part for a huge parking lot, directly conflicts with the vision espoused by city residents for the Albany 2030 plan. The people who attended these planning meetings did not request more parking lots. Instead, they asked for increasing the use of mass transportation, bicycling, walking and other means of non-motor vehicle transport.

In addition to the Saint Rose project, the Board of Zoning Appeals has approved two new surface parking lots for Albany Medical Center Hospital. This is in addition to a new, massive parking garage there.

The board also approved a 77-space parking lot on Hollywood Avenue, at the corner of New Scotland Avenue, for use by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In its decision, the board stated that a 77-space parking lot "will not have an adverse impact ... in the neighborhood."

Hollywood Avenue is located in a completely residential area, with nothing but one- and two-family houses. How this parking lot will not have an adverse impact on the neighborhood is beyond comprehension.

The zoning board also has approved a 99-space surface parking lot on Sheridan Avenue and two parking lots, totaling 78 spaces, for the Brighter Choice Foundation project on Elk Street and North Lake Avenue.

On it goes.

All of these approved projects require building demolition, but none of them include the replacement of lost residential buildings with new housing.

This is not only terrible planning, but it also is a further sign that the city administration has no plan to increase our population and our residential tax base. Other than the Sheridan Avenue project, all of the proposals are for nonprofit corporations that have already removed, or plan to remove, taxable residential property and to replace it with non-taxable surface parking.

Adding useless, non-taxable black-topped property to a city that faces a $23 million deficit this year is nonsensical and places a further financial burden on the dwindling number of taxpayers who are still left in Albany.

Where is the "vision" in Albany's planning process dubbed "Albany 2030"?

Instead of promoting our city as an "All America City," we should change our highway welcoming signs to: "Welcome to Albany, the Parking Lot Capital of the U.S.A."